Leading British Jewish Actress Says Antisemitism May Drive Her to Leave UK

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One of Britain’s best loved actresses has admitted that she is contemplating leaving the country amid a sharp rise in antisemitic attacks against the UK’s Jewish community.

Maureen Lipman, whose extensive credits include a starring role in Roman Polanski’s 2002 film about the Holocaust, The Pianist, was speaking to London radio station LBC following Holocaust Memorial Day ceremonies around the world.

“When the going gets tough, the Jews get packing,” Lipman said. “It’s crossed my mind that it’s time to have a look around for another place to live. I’ve thought about going to New York, I’ve thought about going to Israel.”

Lipman described as “very, very depressing” statistics released by the Community Security Trust, the official security body of British Jews, which last year recorded the highest level of antisemitic attacks in Britain in more than three decades.

“There are 245,000 Jews in this country; I’ve been talking like this for a long time, and my kids are very bored with me,” she said. “But it is only in the last few months that they have to begun to say: ‘Mum you may have something’.”

Lipman has become increasingly outspoken on the subjects of antisemitism and the demonization of Israel in recent months. As The Algemeiner reported in October, Lipman launched a fierce attack on Ed Miliband, the leader of the British Labour Party, for supporting British recognition of a Palestinian state independently of any negotiations with Israel. Lipman also accused Miliband, who is Jewish, of “pandering to the antisemitism masking as anti-Zionism, which is once again sweeping across Europe.”